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Australia
Forrestania Operation (Flying Fox Mine, Spotted Quoll Mine)

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 Location:
369 km E from Perth, Western Australia, Australia

  Regional Office:
Level 2, 2 Kings Park Road
PO BOX 1891
West Perth
Western Australia, Australia
6005
Phone  ...  Subscription required
Fax+61-8-9486-7866
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeUnderground
Commodities
  • Nickel
Mining Method
  • Longhole open stoping
  • Avoca
  • Cemented backfill
  • Paste backfill
Processing
  • Bacterial leaching
  • Flotation
Mine Life4 years (as of Jan 1, 2021)
Forrestania Operation consists of the Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll mines - two of the lowest cost and highest-grade nickel operations in the world.
Latest NewsWestern Areas picks up Forrestania operations after fire     December 9, 2019


Owners

Source: p. 8,91
CompanyInterestOwnership
Western Areas Ltd. 100 % Indirect
The Company owns a 100% interest in the Forrestania Nickel Operation.

Deposit Type

  • VMS


Summary:

The Flying Fox deposit is located about 350 km east-southeast of Perth in the Forrestania greenstone belt, which is the southern extension of the Southern Cross greenstone belt, Southern Cross Domain, Youanmi Terrane in the Archean Yilgarn craton of Western Australia. The Forrestania belt trends approximately north–south over a length of 250 km, ranges in width from 5 to 30 km, and is flanked to the east by the Eastern Goldfield Superterrane and to the west by the South West Terrane. Six ultramafic belts are identified in the Forrestania greenstone belt: the Western, Mid-Western, Takashi, Central Fold, Mid-Eastern, and Eastern, with the Flying Fox deposit located in the Western ultramafic belt.

The stratigraphy of the Forrestania greenstone belt consists of: 1) a lower succession of predominantly tholeiite and komatiite metavolcanic sequences intercalated with banded ironformation (BIF), sulfidic chert layers, and localized felsic metasedimentary units; and 2) an uppermost succession of fine-grained clastic sedimentary rocks (pelitic to psammitic schists) with minor BIF horizons, located in the centre of the belt. The stratigraphy has been intruded by granitic rocks which have exploited pre-existing faults, and by east–west trending dolerite dikes.

The Spotted Quoll Nickel sulphide deposit is located at the Forrestania Nickel Operations, 400 km southeast of Perth. Spotted Quoll is located wholly within Mining Lease M77/583. The deposit is hosted within a sequence of sedimentary, ultramafic and mafic rocks within the Western Ultramafic Belt.

The sulphide mineralisation consists of massive to matrix sulphides located in a possible shear zone in metasedimentary rocks overlain by a package of ultramafic and mafic rocks. The deposit belongs to the Archean komatiite hosted nickel type.


Mining Methods

  • Longhole open stoping
  • Avoca
  • Cemented backfill
  • Paste backfill


Summary:

Flying Fox is Western Areas first producing underground mine and remains one of the highest grade nickel mines in the world. Production commenced in 2006, and the underground mine now operates at depths of over 1km underground.

The Flying Fox orebody extends from 250m to 1.2km below the surface and includes discrete independent orebodies with possible extensions at depth. The primary stoping method used is ‘top- down’ long-hole stoping using paste-fill to attempt 100% recovery of the high-grade orebody. In the narrower sections of the orebody both modified Avoca with unconsolidated and cemented rock-fill are used.

The Spotted Quoll orebody is open at depth with the mine currently planned to just over 1km below the surface. The primary stoping method is a ‘top-down’ mining method using long-hole open stoping with paste fill. The narrower and shallower areas are mined using top-down narrow vein techniques.


Crushing and Grinding
Crusher / Mill TypeModelSizePowerQuantity
Ball mill 1

Summary:

The Cosmic Boy Concentrator has a three stage crushing circuit, followed by a single closed circuit ball mill.


Processing

  • Bacterial leaching
  • Flotation

Source: Subscription required

Summary:

The high-grade nickel ore mined from Forrestania is processed through the Cosmic Boy Concentrator (CBC) and sold into offtake agreements with Jinchuan Group, China’s largest stainless steel producer and BHP Ni West.

The CBC treats the raw nickel and produces a consistent nickel concentrate product grading approximately 14% nickel. The concentrate produced from the Forrestania project is characterised by low impurities such as magnesium which makes it more desirable to smelters.

The concentrator consists of a three-stage crushing circuit, followed by a single closed-circuit ball mill and a system of flotation tanks and thickening/filtration system.

The recovery rates for Cosmic Boy currently average between 85% and 90%. The recovery rates refer to the percentage amount of nickel recovered from the raw ore during processing.

At CBC a Mill Recovery Enhancement Project (MREP) has recently been commissioned. The MREP incorporates the use of the C ........

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter2020201920182017
Nickel Recovery Rate, %  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required8789
Nickel Head Grade, %  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required44.2

Production:

CommodityUnits20212020201920182017
Nickel kt  ......  Subscription required ^  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required2123
All production numbers are expressed as metal in concentrate. ^ Guidance / Forecast.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics2020201920182017
Ore tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required556,002 t607,120 t591,778 t
Tonnes milled  ......  Subscription required610,487 t616,598 t617,808 t
Annual processing capacity  ......  Subscription required550,000 t550,000 t
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Reserves at June 30, 2020:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Probable 3,729,300 t Nickel 2.5 % 92,420 t
Total Resource 18,302,902 t Nickel 1.7 % 307,786 t

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits20212020201920182017
Credits (by-product) Nickel AUD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required -0.03 / lb -0.03 / lb
Cash costs Nickel AUD  ......  Subscription required ^†  ......  Subscription required†  ......  Subscription required† 2.63 / lb† 2.38 / lb†
^ Guidance / Forecast.
† Net of By-Product.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Financials:

Units2020201920182017
Revenue M AUD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required248.3   213.9  
Pre-tax Income M AUD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required17.2   17.4  
After-tax Income M AUD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required11.8   19.3  
EBIT M AUD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required18.5   18.6  
EBITDA M AUD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required248.3   84.9  
Subscription required - Subscription is required


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 24, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 24, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 24, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 24, 2021
Subscription required - Subscription is required.


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
Annual Report 2018
Annual Report 2017
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2013
Other 2010
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

News:

NewsDate
Western Areas picks up Forrestania operations after fire December 9, 2019
Western Areas suspends Forrestania operations after bush fire December 6, 2019

Aerial view:

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